Room Two

A Room of One's Own

Berkeley's first sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, was formed in 1890, and by 1915 seventeen sororities had received charters. Each had its own chapter house providing a residence for its members, but the sororities excluded women of color and those from working-class backgrounds.

House clubs were welcoming to a broader range of women students, but they were still not open to everyone. With financial support from Phoebe Apperson Hearst, two house clubs were established in 1900: Pie del Monte and Enewah, each with fifteen women students and a housemother. By 1915, there were fifteen house clubs in the blocks surrounding the campus.

In 1909 a private women's dormitory, College Hall, was constructed on the corner of Hearst and La Loma. Though it was built with the encouragement of the dean of women, it was not officially affiliated with the university. College Hall provided the first large-scale residence for women students at Berkeley.

The Office of the Dean of Students set rules governing boarding houses that catered to women students. Only those houses that met these stringent regulations were included on the approved list, and freshmen women were not permitted to live in a house that was not approved.